50 



TLACOLULA. 



suited to the strength of the individual — how everything 

 went by rule and square, and how seldom anything went 

 wrong. The Mexican pack saddle would seem in itself 

 to be a burden. A considerable variety is shown in the 

 leather furniture, which is often embossed and embroi- 

 dered in red and yellow, in addition to a name such as 

 Bamonos, Abobo, Mejico. These names, however, may 

 be said to belong more to the suit of harness than, as 

 might be supposed, to the animal wearing it. 



Once packed, and in motion, off the mules marched in 

 Indian file ; one pacing under the mountainous load of 

 the camp beds, another laden with two portmanteaus, 

 a third with carpet bags and canteen, and so forth, while 

 the last scampered after his fellows with the odds and 

 ends belonging to our travelling kitchen, often to the 

 great danger of the pans which dangled from his sides. 



On arrival at our place of repose they were unladen, 

 and every set of furniture carefully arranged by itself in 

 the most precise and exact order, while the emancipated 

 animals made use of the first moment of liberty to in- 

 dulge in a hearty shake, or rolls in the dust, followed up 

 by that brief sententious bray, by which the mule ex- 

 presses his feelings, in contradistinction to the full, round, 

 sonorous, and protracted descant of his mother ass. 



Old Bamanos, or " Let-us-be-jogging," was the most 

 trusted, the most sapient, and the most morose of the 

 train ; and occasionally bestowed a brace of resounding 

 kicks upon the hollow sides of Abobo, or another of his 

 brethren, when he saw them in possession of a bush or 

 pasture of particular succulence. He was the leader of 

 the unled, and ordinarily followed his master. 



We were fortunate in finding maize fodder in most 

 of our halting places ; but in default of this our provi- 

 ders were seldom at loss, but stripping particular trees 

 of their nutritious foliage, supplied the necessities of their 

 mules with what the thickets furnished. 



As to our two varlets, when you have said of Miguel 

 that he w T as a borrachio, you have recorded all the positive 

 evil in his character that come within our notice ; as to 

 negative faults he had plenty, but what could be expect- 



